I wouldn't argue against that point for the most part. However, I think the special guys from 100 years like Cobb or Speaker would still be good players today just because they were so, so much better than their competition. One year when Cobb hit .390 the league average was .256. Another thing to remember about the players from 100 years ago is that these were the best (white obviously) players of their time. There was an extensive amount of lower professional leagues (early minor leagues) back then and all the athletes in the country were playing baseball since football and basketball weren't really on the national radar all that much. So the guys who played in the bigs 100 years ago were not only the best ballplayers in the country but also among the best athletes in the country (Jim Thorpe played in the MLB for 6 years, for example). It wasn't like someone could just walk up to the park and say "hey y'all, I wanna play!!". They had a pretty big network of minor leagues and you had to work your way up just like now.